The One After [SHAWN MENDES]

Chapter 89

I was sitting on my bed filing my nails when Shawn came into my room wearing only a towel after taking a late afternoon shower. "Whatcha doing, birthday girl?" he asked.

"Giving myself a quick manicure. I can't decide on the color, though." I gestured to the five bottles of polish on my bedside table.

He squatted to get a good look at them. "I love this dark green; it's practically black."

"It's a great color, but I think I want to go lighter. Do you like that beigey-pink?"

"It's very pretty." He sat down next to me on the bed. "Can you paint mine when you're done with yours?"

This sort of thing was one of the many reasons I adored him. "You want to look good for my dinner, too?"

"Well yeah. Will your fam think it's strange since I'm a guy?"

"I don't know and I don't care. I think it's sexy as fuck and it's my party," I said firmly. "I'll do yours first."

I'd decided that he could join me at my birthday dinner since I was trying hard to both let go of my past negative feelings about the occasion and ignore the overlap between my dream and reality. I also let him give me a present when he took me out to lunch earlier that day, and I was blown away by the beautiful blue topaz pendant accented with ethically-sourced Canadian diamonds.

"I want to make a good impression," he told me as he picked the dark green polish up, "just like you made on my parents last night."

We had dinner with Karen and Manny Mendes at their lovely home the evening before. I immediately liked both of them, and it was nice to know they felt the same way. We stayed up late getting to know each other as we sipped wine, and then Shawn and I stayed over in his old bedroom, which led to a humorous attempt at quiet sex. His bed was squeaky, so we'd moved down to the floor where we finished in my favorite position.

"Your parents are so great," I remarked before reaching for his hands to see what I was working with. "You need to stop biting these nails."

"I don't bite them!"

I gave him a very pointed look since he was clearly lying.

"Maybe I do occasionally. It's a nervous habit."

I filed each one and then carefully painted them before doing my own. Sitting side by side on the bed, we waited for them to dry, though knowing we couldn't touch each other was rather infuriating. When we were together, we tended to hold hands or cuddle.

"What should I expect tonight?" he asked.

"Everyone already considers you a hero, so there might be a lot of gushing and fawning. They're pretty protective, so don't be surprised if one of my uncles gives you a warning about hurting me. In general, it'll be loud and crowded, but the food will be delicious."

He leaned over and kiss my cheek. "I like that we're at the 'getting to know each other's families' stage. Over the holidays you'll meet Aaliyah, and I think you two are going to hit it off."

His younger sister requested to follow me after Shawn's Halloween post and we'd DMed a few times. From what I knew, I liked her already

My phone buzzed and I looked over and saw a notification from Briya. I carefully picked up my phone to keep from smudging my nails so I could read it.

Hi! Hope your regular and not special at all Saturday is going great!

I hadn't told my friends that I was making an attempt to accept my birthday.

You can say happy birthday. I'm okay with it now.

At least ten birthday gifs appeared and then Fallon joined in with more, which indicated they were together since this wasn't in the group chat.